Israel’s Minister of Finance has said the country will not give up its so-called “golden share” in Zim.
A notice on the ministry’s website said that the decision was made after a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Transport, and Ministry of Justice that heard the positions of Zim and Israel’s Merchant Marine Officers Association.
Israel’s Globes newspaper said the discussions “emphasized the strategic, security and economic
aspects.”
The golden share gives Israel rights to control certain actions by the formerly state-owned container liner company, and the company wanted to eliminate them as part of its financial restructuring.
A spokesman for the company was not immediately available for comment, but Globes wrote that “waiving the golden share is not a condition appearing in the wording of the debt settlement, but Zim says that it deliberately kept the demand out because its creditors agreed to the settlement on the basis of verbal understanding that the company would secure the government’s waiving the golden share. Under the debt settlement, Zim shares were to be cancelled to allow the establishing of a new company with new articles of incorporation.”
The parent company of Zim, Israel Corp., said a shareholder meeting, originally scheduled for June 27 “to approve the company’s part in Zim’s arrangement and to authorize the company’s management to act in connection with the implementation of the arrangement” has been postponed to July 4.
Israel will not give up golden share
